


A Two-hander to Remember

by moenochrome



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Trying to work through all the fellas. Bear with me.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:20:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21750244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moenochrome/pseuds/moenochrome
Summary: A two-hander. An act between just two people. With the various talents in Mankai company, accepting this challenge was a no-brainer for Izumi.There's just one catch, Isuke broke it to her, "It has to be an actor and an actress.”“...There are no actresses here.” She said blankly.When she saw the pleading look that Isuke shot her way, she finally caught on to what he was suggesting.“… No. Absolutely not.” She shook her head furiously. Even her curry stirring seemed to hasten with her agitation. “I am not doing this. You’ve seen me act! You know I’m talentless! And hammy! And I have no place on stage!”-In which our dedicated director with one (1) fear is forced to confront it and step on stage again, but at least she got to pick her partner. Her poor, poor partner.Whether they win or lose, this was definitely going to be a two-hander to remember.
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru/Tachibana Izumi, Tachibana Izumi/Everyone
Comments: 13
Kudos: 126





	1. PROLOGUE

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, I am not up to date with JP A3! I’m basing all of this off of the main story in the EN version. I hope that I can still stay truthful to the characters even if I’m unspoiled. I want to work my way through the entire cast eventually, but feel free to suggest settings/plays that would suit the character. I think the first story I’m going to write is with my personal favorite—Sakyo. Or maybe Itaru. I'll play it by ear...

**PROLOGUE.**

“ _DI-REC-TOR!_ ”

The shout echoed through the Mankai company dorms, but Izumi was too used to their foolhardy manager’s outbursts to be fazed. She didn’t even bother glancing up from the curry pot she was tending to when Kamekichi landed on her shoulder. “What is it?”

Having run hard enough to leave him winded, Isuke held onto the kitchen counter for dear life as he wheezed, “I did it! I found the answer to all our problems—a quick way for us to get enough money to fund the props for the next year--” And in response to the skeptical glance Izumi shoots his way, he adds, “Legally, of course.”

Kamekichi squawked the most important detail: “Through acting!”

She _knew_ it sounded too good to be true and that making money was something far more suitable for Sakyo to handle than anybody else, especially Isuke. Despite all that, she still took the bait, turning her attention away from the curry she was so lovingly tending to, “Really?”

“Look at this!” Isuke brandished a flyer from seemingly nowhere and slapped it down on the counter in front of her. “There’s an acting competition! It’s no _Fleur_ trophy, but it’s definitely worth a pretty penny. All we have to do is stage a two-hander in a month! The best one wins a ton of money!”

It was definitely not an amount of money to scoff at. And all they had to do was host a two-hander? An act between just two people? With the various talents in Mankai company, this was a no-brainer for Izumi. They could do this, for sure!

“That sounds… incredible! Good job finding this, Isuke.” Izumi said. “It should be easy for Tsuzuru to crank out a script for two people. As for the duo that should take this on…”

Just as her brain was racing to find the best troupe and combination for the act, Isuke coughed into his hand nervously, “There’s just _one_ little hiccup.”

“…What is it?”

“They’re _only_ accepting acts with a male lead and a female lead.”

“That’s not a problem! So Yuki has to be one of them—”

“No can do. They specified that it _has_ to be an actor and an actress.”

“…But there are no actresses here.” She said blankly.

When she saw the pleading look that Isuke shot her way, she finally caught on to what he was suggesting.

“… No. Absolutely not.” She shook her head furiously. Even her curry stirring seemed to hasten with her agitation. “I am _not_ doing this. You’ve seen me act! You know I’m talentless! And hammy! And I have _no_ place on stage!”

“Director, please!” Isuke was on his knees. “At least give it a try! The deadline to apply is tomorrow! That’s not enough time for us to find anybody else!”

“Please!” Kamekichi echoed.

“Help us, Director! You’re our only hope!”

“No!” Izumi shoots him a glare bitter enough to kill before she picks up the entire curry pot with strength only a Currian could muster and slams it onto the dinner table, scaring Kamekichi off of his perch on her shoulder. “BOYS! Dinner is ready!”

Defeated, Isuke took his seat at the table, resigned to the fifth time this week he would be eating curry and the third time this week one of his ideas has been turned down.

~

It’s only after a night of staring at her ceiling feelingly that Izumi arrives at a decision. She can’t even begin to count the number of nightmares that she had about going on stage again—ranging from her stepping onto stage with no pants on to her making a complete fool of herself by slipping and landing on her head. The few street acts she participated in since she joined the Mankai company have been downright cringy, at _best_. Obviously, she should say no.

…She _should_ say no, but the truth was that she desperately missed the feeling of standing on stage. Seeing all the troupes pull through and hearing the thunderous applause on closing night scratched an itch deep inside of her, but sitting in the crowd during the applause was undeniably different from standing on stage.

For once, she decided, Isuke was right—this was worth a _try_. As for the poor guy that had to stand on stage with her, she decided on that too.

It would have to be…

( TO BE CONTINUED ... )


	2. Itaru Chigasaki – A.I. Love

Itaru Chigasaki – AI Love

Itaru.

She still remembered how he acted on the closing night of Romeo and Julius and how touched he had been to stand on stage and be a proper actor. A script with only two people shouldn’t be troublesome for him to memorize at all. All the right pieces for a successful two-hander lead there—the natural charisma, the stage presence. He puts on an act everyday for work that people get sucked into and now he just has to pull a just-as-convincing act for this play that would hopefully make up for her hammy acting. 

The only problem was his motivation.

~

“…That’s what you came into my room to tell me?”

“I would have told you over breakfast… _if_ you showed up.”

“I was busy.” Itaru drawled, eyes glued to the phone he was tapping so furiously at. Clearly, it had been another late night for him. “Anyway… no can do, Director. This event only lasts one month and I have to get Alice’s new SSR through play, unless I can pull her from the gatcha.”

Izumi understood very little of what he was saying. What she _did_ understand was that he had just rejected being in the play. After a night of her mulling over this decision tirelessly and deciding that the only person she could open up to about this was Itaru, she was more than a little disheartened.

“I just don’t want to risk my currency this month since she’s a guaranteed play-to-get, you know?” Now he was just mumbling mindlessly as he tap, tap, tapped away. “And acting on stage with you… well, I’m usually a pretty good carry, but man… it’ll be a challenge for sure. Would that make you a tank? Or a support? Oh... a feeder?”

Izumi sighed, shook her head, and turned to leave before she got caught any further in his weird jargon.

It was only when her hand touched the door handle that she really felt the flush of her cheeks. It was downright embarrassing for her to put herself out like this and get turned down for a game she couldn’t even understand.

“Later, dire—HEY!”

And so she stomps her way back, snatches Itaru’s phone right out of his hands and starts pressing buttons, “What’s this thing you want to pull so badly? Let me see it for myself! I just have to go to the menu… and… this button? Draw one?”

The further she descended into the colorful hell that was his weird mobile game full of provocative ladies, by the look of it, the more confused she got. A loading screen appeared, stopping her in her crusade just long enough for Itaru to wrangle the phone back into his grasp.

“Give it back, you scrub—how can you waste—” There was a weighty beat as he took time to gloss over the damage. He stared, fish-eyed at his screen in disbelief, reaching up to undo his front ponytail as if that would make him see better. “Eh? _EH?_ She came home? **_ALICE CAME HOME?!_** ”

This interaction was nothing short of a rollercoaster for Izumi to experience. After Itaru processed what happened, he kissed his phone screen and shook his fist triumphantly, as though he had won something great. Then he turned to the director, beaming, “Nice, you saved me a month of time! I owe you my _life_ —oh, what did you want me to do again? A play?”

~

Tsuzuru made a very reasonable request: “Well, in order for me to write a script, I wanted to see how you guys act together.”

It seemed reasonable, but they would soon learn that there are some things that just defy all reason.

“Let’s try some scenarios. Itaru, you take the lead since… well, our director might be a bit rusty.” Tsuzuru trailed off. “First: how about something suspenseful?”

Itaru nodded and immediately pressed his back against the pillar, his hands positioned in a way that was clearly meant to mime a gun. It was all rather impressive, Izumi thought.

“Take cover.” He whispered at her, annoyed. “Before _they_ shoot you.”

She snapped back to reality just that second. Crap, she was so used to being an observer that she forgot she was supposed to be acting alongside him, not analyzing his performance, “Oh, uh, right!”

She scrambled to the left, then to the right, and finally settled somewhere next to Itaru on the pillar with her hands hovering in the air shakily. When she glanced up to Itaru to continue the scene, she clamped her mouth shut when she saw his expression, “Are you… holding back a laugh?”

“… N…no. That was… pffwwt… that was great.” Itaru _snorted_. “It was amazing. Hey, do you think you can do that little _shimmy shimmy_ thing you just did again?”

Tsuzuru interjected, “Ok, cut, cut. Never mind, maybe we shouldn’t have a lot of moving around. How about something sad?”

It took Itaru a second to think up a scenario. When he does, there's a shift in his face as he places his hands over Izumi's -- an action that caused her to freeze up. His eyes glistened with fake tears as he pleaded so convincingly, “Please… sister, you can’t go.”

“I…” Izumi stuttered. “I have to go...”

“I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”

She said frigidly, “It’ll be okay... father.”

Itaru tilted his head, out of character now, “… Uh, I was your _brother_ in that act.”

“Oh! Sorry! I messed that up.” Izumi apologized hastily, but that hiccup didn’t quite excuse her poor acting just then.

“Okay…” Tsuzuru sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose hopelessly. “I know a lot of the other plays are doing something romantic. Do you think you guys could do something like that?”

Izumi had a lot of reservations about that—a huge number of which was that Itaru was a rather handsome individual and she was having a hard time keeping cool when he got too close—

This time, Itaru placed a hand directly on Izumi’s face, “Alice…”

Izumi was completely frozen solid. Alice—wasn’t that the name of the girl that they pulled earlier that day? Was he expecting her to play a character from a mobile game?

He continued, “Alice… I love you.”

And in a voice that Izumi herself couldn’t recognize, she hiccuped in perfect monotone, “I… I. Love. You. Too.”

The room went quiet. Izumi suddenly felt like dying.

“That…” Tsuzuru was grimacing. “Uh. It was _kind_ of choppy.”

“Kind of?” Itaru had no hesitation, “What are you, a robot?”

Izumi sighs, deflating visibly, “I’m sorry. I really am. I’ll do my best this month so that I at least don’t embarrass you when we’re on the stage by being a ‘robot.’”

“…A robot?” The script writer zoned in on that word. “…I have an idea!”

But before the duo could inquire further, he was already off to his room to write.

~

The next day, Alice was the talk of the dorms. As overheard by Izumi:

“Wow!” Citron cheered, “Solo yolo! What a spoke of luck!”

“Uh. You mean stroke of luck?” Banri corrected. “And you’re telling me the director got her from a _single_ pull? Maybe I should get her to pull for me too.”

Itaru was quick to disagree, “What? No. You might use up all her luck if you're greedy. Anyway, check it out, I already maxed her out and unlocked her costume already.”

“Already?” Banri sputtered. “It’s been out for a _day_. Where did you even find the time?”

“Love finds a way…” Itaru sighed wistfully, as though what he said was the greatest adage of his time.

By this point, Izumi decides she's heard enough of the silly conversation and turns in for the night.

~

In Tsuzuru’s usual manner, he arrives at the crack of dawn with a script in his hand and promptly passes out on the couch after he drops it on someone's lap.

“So it’s a story about an AI and her creator?” Sakuya was the first to comment. “It’s… really good!”

“Yeah… Yeah! This is going to work!” Izumi clapped her hands together. It was ingenious way to tie together her robotic acting and still let her be on the same stage as Itaru.

Citron wiped at his tears daintily, “The moment they fall in love… how touching.”

“They… fall in love?” Masumi immediately stood up and loomed over Itaru. “Trade with me.”

“What? No, the play was written for me.”

 **“Trade with me.”** Masumi repeated, more insistent this time.

He had to be dragged away.

~

Practice went about as smoothly as everybody expected. Since the majority of the spring troupe weren’t acting, they wound up being the directors overseeing it.

> “Program, start.” Itaru played an unnamed professor, a genius for his time, if not a little lonely.
> 
> “Program. Start.” Izumi played the AI that he invented and that he was in the process of making a body for. It was smart planning on Tsuzuru’s part. All her awkward pauses and stiff motions only added to the authenticity of the situation.
> 
> “Silly, you can’t learn to be human by repeating words back to me.” Itaru chuckled so naturally, it was unfair. “I know you think your purpose is whatever I tell you to do. Well, how about we start with something simple? Ask me ‘how are you?’”
> 
> “How. Are. You?”
> 
> “I’m great. I spent all day putting in the final touches on your program…… Uh. Masumi, what are you doing.”

For some reason, Masumi had stepped onto the stage and was smackdab between Itaru and Izumi. “Too close. Stay two meters away from her at all times.”

“Wh—he can’t do that! It’s a play, Masumi! Get back here.” Sakuya sighed, pulling him back into the audience.

~

Two weeks in, they pull in the infamous Demon Coach to evaluate their performance.

“Hm…”

The six of them all leaned in to hear.

“The script isn’t bad. The kid doesn’t do a bad job monologuing and conveying his emotions through his gestures. However…” And here it comes. “The final act is a hot mess.You can’t expect to win with such a boring conclusion.”

“Should I rewrite that act?” Tsuzuru offered helpfully.

“No.” Coach shook his head and pointed at Izumi, “You’re going to have to have to pull some of your own weight and get it together. It doesn’t feel like the AI comes alive at the end—she still doesn’t understand what being human and being in love is about.”

Izumi nodded, “I’ll work on it.”

~

It was after their evaluation that Izumi catches Itaru tapping away at his phone again that she asks a question that had been weighing on her mind, “Itaru. What do you think about Alice?”

“Alice? Well, she’s my favorite character in _this_ game, even if she doesn’t have the best stats. She’s pretty versatile and can fulfill any role.” He was murdering mobs with her as they spoke. “She’s like the glue that keeps the team together, y’know. Oh, and she has really cute outfits—check this one out, pretty cute, right?

Izumi peeked at his screen and conceded that she had a pretty adorable design, but she kept prodding, “But do you actually… love her? A character from a game?”

Itaru quirked an eyebrow at that, ever so briefly glancing up from the screen and humming with thought, “Well, she’s there for me when I get back from home and getting to hear her say good night worth staying up for … so yeah, I guess I do love her. I’d like to think that me choosing to play her over anybody else keeps her alive, or something like that. Maybe, if that’s the case, she looks forward to seeing me too.”

It didn’t make a lot of sense to Izumi—Itaru rarely did, but she felt like she understood both him and the play a little bit better after that.

~

On opening night, she steels herself by slapping her cheeks with both hands. There’s no use being nervous now! This was going to happen whether she wanted it to or not. But as nervous as she felt, she also felt _excitement_. It’s been so long since she’s been in front of a crowd that big.

“Ready?” Itaru stood by her side. “Hey, do you think we can get an extra little cut of the money for our efforts once we win? There’s this game coming out next week…”

“Really, you’re asking this now?” She chastised, and then she caught herself. “And it’s only _if_ we win. Don’t get cocky, Itaru.”

He smiles that crooked little smile he has right before a game he’s about to win. “Yeah, yeah. Curtain’s coming up. Get on there.”

~

The remaining Spring Troupe audience were seated near the front of the stage.

“Full house! All that advertising paid off.” Sakuya cheered over the humdrum of the audience behind them.

Tsuzuru nodded, “I think it was mostly Itaru’s face pulling in the audience.”

Citron turned to his seatmate, “Masumi, are you okay? Your leg is bouncing very much.”

“The lucky bastard…” Masumi hissed.

~ AI LOVE ~

The first act focuses on the professor monologuing about his day to the AI, answering her questions whenever she asks him to describe an emotion and an instance that he felt it.

> "And the mountains behind this place... I love that place. It's such a sight to see--I'll have to let you see it with your own eyes once I'm done with your body."
> 
> "Love?" She questions, in a rare moment of curiosity. "What. Is. Love?"
> 
> "Love? Love is like... the feeling of coming home. It's an unconditional kind of care and a desire for someone to be happy. It's... well, the more I talk, the sillier I feel." As the professor, Itaru really shone through in scenes where he had to be playful, yet contemplative. "Love is a very complicated emotion... they say you feel it here." He presses a hand to the android's chest, "But I think you can feel it all over. I think love might just be the feeling that makes someone _human_."
> 
> At the end of the scene, the AI mulls over this concept and reaches out for the Professor as she murmurs, "Love..."

In the second act, as the professor finishes up the AI's body, it is discovered that she had made leaps and bounds in becoming more human. At the end of the act, he finishes her body and declares that he loves her, much to his own surprise.

> "Test your body parts out. How do they feel?"
> 
> The AI moves her limbs one by one, tilting her head with each sensation, "Everything is... functional." And she smiles, ever so slightly, "Thank you, Professor."
> 
> "Of course. Now that your body is complete, I think it'd only be right to give you a proper name, right?"
> 
> "A name?"
> 
> "Yes: Ai."
> 
> "'Ai'... as in... love?" There's a unusual hitch in her voice for the first time here. Excitement? Anticipation? She moves towards him of her own volition, "Professor, do you love me?"
> 
> "Of course I d--..."
> 
> "You love me?"
> 
> "..."
> 
> "Professor. I love you, too."
> 
> "I... no, you don't. You just _think_ you do. I... I have to go."
> 
> "Wait. I--" With the Professor hurrying to leave the room, Ai attempts to chase after him only to stumble from the use of her new limbs and crumble right outside the door, "Professor..." 

In the final act, the professor attempts to distance himself from Ai because he fears that the she thinks it is her duty to love him and not because of her own sentience. She proves him wrong.

> "Professor." She knocks once on the door that separates them.
> 
> The Professor is sitting with his back against the door with his head in his arms. He doesn't answer.
> 
> Despite her hesitation, for the first time, Izumi adlibbed, "Professor. Please, ask me 'how are you?'" 
> 
> Itaru sits up ever so slightly, an out of character reaction that worked in character, "How are you?"
> 
> "I... am sad. There is someone I have been waiting to hear from. I used to see and hear from his everyday. Hearing about his day was the best part of my own day. When he was happy, I was happy. When he was sad, I was sad. And now, without him... I miss him. I was looking forward to the day that I would have a body, so that he could take me to the mountains that he talked about. I wanted to see and feel all the things that he talked about. I wanted to feel his hands with my own. I... I love him, Professor."
> 
> And as the Professor listens, he stands straighter and straighter until he can't stop himself from opening the door to see her.
> 
> "Ai..."
> 
> "Professor..."
> 
> And in unison, as they pull each other into an embrace as the curtains fall: "I love you."

~

The applause and cheers were deafening. Multiple girls sighed dreamily, praising the actor that played the Professor and wishing they could be in the spot of the AI.

Izumi felt warm--she really did miss this feeling, but there was no point feeling sad about it now. There were still a couple of nights to go.

**"Give her hug to me!"**

"Hey, let--let go!? What the hell are you trying to do? A-Are you trying to absorb the hug out of me?!"

The only problem now was getting Masumi to forgive Itaru.

~

After closing night, when Itaru sat down on his usual perch at his desktop computer, Itaru came to two startling realization:

1) The last few nights have been so incredible that he was sorry that he wouldn't be able to experience it again.

2) The last few nights have been so incredible that he has fallen behind in his gatcha game dailies.

He scrambled for his phone, shocked that he could forget something so _important._ When Alice greets him on his home screen, he sighs with relief. She coos, her sprite bouncing eagerly, "I missed you. Come play with me!~"

Itaru froze. Something felt... wrong, so he claims his dailies and turns his phone off to think.

It just wasn't the same.

There's a quiet knock on his door, and for a moment he felt as though he was right back on stage, hoping to his feet and swinging that door open with vigor that the Professor on stage showed.

" _Whoa!_ Hey!" Izumi was obviously startled, but she was quick to regain her composure. "Itaru," She reached down to clasp his hands. "We _won_. I wanted to thank you for acting in this play with me, even though I was... hammy. And awkward."

For a hot minute, he is quiet and he knew (deep, deep down) that it was because he knew that if he said anything, she would eventually let go. But the silence was getting awkward so he joked, "So about my extra payment..."

She rolled her eyes and let go of his hands, much to his disappointment. "Having enough to fund the next year should be payment enough if you love the theatre."

"Fine, fine... but will you do something for me?"

Izumi tilts her head, "What is it?"

"Act out a scenario with me--before you go back to being the director."

"I..." She's a little weirded out. Of course she is, but it didn't look like she was unperceptive to the idea. "Sure?"

"Act out Ai welcoming the Professor home after a day of hard work."

It takes her a second to erase the surprise from her face. She shuts her eyes, gets in character, and although it's still a little robotic and awkward, the way that she smiled and her eyes crinkled was _perfect_ , "I missed you. Welcome home."

Itaru thinks, _Ah_ , _there it is._

He smiles, "I'm home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed! I literally cranked this out in one day because I was feeling really inspired... Please let me know what you think and who you'd like to see next. :v


End file.
